February

In February we celebrated Nate's birthday. Uncle J.T., Aunty Britty and Cousin Maile got a yummy ice cream cake for him to blow out his candles. Since 2005, Nate's birthday has fallen during busy season - so he usually doesn't have to much time to relax and celebrate. One of these years we'll have a real celebration. Alyssa and I spent some time with Aunty Ro before she heads off to Japan on her mission. We went with Families For Real to Dole Plantation to ride the train. That was the first time I had been there - sad local . Aside from Alyssa kicking off her shoe during the train ride, we had a nice time riding the train, feeding the fish and eating pineapple. We drove a little further north for shave ice at Aoki's.

January

In January we went to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. I wanted to get some yummy treats - sesame peanut candy, char siu bao, pork hash and gao but we went too late and the bakery was wiped out. Island manapua factory in manoa to the rescue.

One of the mothers from Families For Real brought chrysalis for each child. We got to see the butterfly hatch and let it go free.

December

Santa Sam paid a visit to Alyssa for Christmas - she was not amused. Grandma Lee, Uncle Jeff, Aunty Meri and cousin Thomas came for Christmas and New Year's Eve. All the cousins had great fun with a water fountain. I think the people at the restaurant were entertained too.

November

We were grateful to have friends Grandma Shima, Geri, Greg and Helen visit as well as aunties Joy and Cheryl. We enjoyed kalua turkey and sushi for Thanksgiving.

Halloween

Alyssa was not a big fan of the duck body suit at the ward party, so we decided for Halloween to dress her as Boo from Monster's Inc. Unfortunately most people didn't make the connection. Alyssa has not yet mastered the art of begging for free candy - maybe next year.

October continued

October was also a chance to spend time with cousin Thomas, make friends with Kaia and don a duck costume for Halloween.

Alyssa's 1st birthday

Blog? What blog?

I thought I put updating the blog into my New Year's Resolutions but I didn't. It would have shared the same fate as any diet resolution. So here's an update of the last six (opps it's been that long) months:

October: Alyssa celebrated her first birthday with family, games and some Chinese lions for good luck

Family BBQ

We arrived in Hawaii and went to work unpacking everything we packed just a few weeks ago. The family had a welcome BBQ/ farewell to Robyn/Happy Birthday Unkie Jonathan (pretty much an excuse to eat, drink and get fat).